Congratulations and best of luck to Laguna’s Project Based Computing class who was selected to present their idea of using an iPhone to control a quadcopter via bluetooth at this year’s SB County Education Office’s Showcase of Innovative Learning.

This exciting event takes place on May 11 from 4:30-6:30pm at the SB County Education Office Auditorium. It will feature students and educators of Deeper Learning Schools sharing exemplary innovative educational technology, which is student-centered, collaborative, project based, and meaningful for both students and teachers. Laguna’s class will inspire the audience with real-world digital integration of a common communication tool, the iPhone, and a micro mini Arduino based quadcopter.

“The most challenging part of this project was understanding the software needed to deal with the real time communication of flight instructions from the iPhone,” explains Math instructor Mr. Ary, who is leading the effort. “The most exciting part was the look of amazement on the students’ faces when they first got all four engines to respond correctly to those instructions.”

Mr. Ary is a 25 year member of the Mathematics Department at Laguna Blanca and he teaches, among other classes, AP Calculus and AP Computer Science. He earned a Master’s degree in Mathematics from UCSB where he acted as a Community Teaching Fellow during his graduate years. Mr. Ary is also a long time adjunct faculty member for the Mathematics Department at SBCC. He enjoys and considers it a privilege to teach such a wide and diverse range of students, from fifth  graders at Laguna to the adults at SBCC. Two years ago, he was asked to teach a class in Project Based Computer Science. Zack Moore, the head of the STEM Department at Laguna, introduced him to the Arduino hardware and it’s Interactive Development Environment (IDE). He saw this combination of hardware and software as the perfect mix to get students interested in programming. Since then—and with the help of a few Simon Monk books—he put together a curriculum that teaches basic C++ programming embedded with over 30 hardware projects.

Laguna’s Project Based Computing course is open to students in grades 7-12, and fosters a love of technology while creating a solid design and coding foundation. This foundation will allow students to continue to build upon skills in computer systems, digital design, and project management with an emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving.